Chapter 167
I got up and followed a guy to the dance floor when he asked me to dance. He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me close. He was blond like Candido with dark eyes. I could almost imagine he’s what Candido would have looked like in his youth back before Sibyl. It made it easy to smile at him and press in close. There was a bit of whiskey on his breath so he smelled a little like Candido too.
“You know I never got a chance to talk to you,” he said. “When we were still in school. I wanted to, but you always seemed uninterested… what changed?”
I shrugged. “A lot of things. Does it matter we’re talking now?”
He grinned. “No, I guess it doesn’t. I hear you liked math.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
“I was majoring in Physics,” he said. “I wanted to design cars. I’ve learned to like math as a matter of survival. I'd still rather not pick up a book if I don’t have to.”
“Me either,” I said grinning. “What year?”
“Senior. I was finishing up my senior project. I know that makes me older than you, but not by too much.”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” I said. “I’m an adult.”
His lips twitched. “Yeah… you are. What were you planning to major in?”
I had no idea. I’d never thought about it. I don’t think I’d ever planned to graduate. I thought that as soon as I got rid of Sibyl. Candido would notice me, and I wouldn’t have to finish school. I could just be his luna and his wife. I’d do what was needed for Moon Shadow as needed, but my life would be all about Candido.
And I still wanted that, but I was learning that the path to getting that wasn’t as straight and narrow as I first thought it would be.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Not literature.”
He laughed. “Good answer. You could major in math? Whenever classes start again anyway. Maybe you could go into Stats…”
As he talked, I realized that he was completely normal. He had no ties to the war, no ties to all the danger that was growing in the background. He didn’t know a thing about vampires or their connection to each other.
He was perfectly normal with normal aspirations. He wanted to develop a new type of car or something. I wasn’t really sure. I wasn’t interested in his answers or reasoning. I wasn’t even interested, really, in having some random career. That was the future that Candido kept telling me that he wanted for me: normal, uncomplicated, and away from him. I didn’t want it. I had never wanted it, not even when I was being poisoned at Wolf Fang.
“Let’s talk about something else…” I said. “What brought you here?”
“I’m always good for a party,” he said. “And after everything that’s been happening…”
I tuned out what he was saying. Focused on the sway of our bodies as my mind kept drifting to Candido. If only I could have this with Candido. If only he would just let us have this and stop trying to put distance between us.
If only he was as interested in me as this guy seemed to be. When he asked me questions, he seemed interested in the answer. I didn’t get the sense that he was just humoring me or indulging me. He wasn’t coddling me. He also wasn’t letting me fill the conversation. I decided I didn’t really like it. He was handsome, and maybe if I wasn’t so used to Candido I might have thought he was sort of charming, but I wanted Candido’s attention. I wanted the way he just gave me all of his attention, the way he indulged me and seemed to enjoy doing so.
No one else’s attention would do. This senior was cute, but I wasn’t attracted to him at all. Still, I humored him. Smiled when I needed to and all that, but I didn’t really care what he was talking about. I didn’t really care to hear about his parents and his siblings, his completely normal life, and how much it had changed because of the war.
I didn’t care, and once Candido came, it wouldn’t matter. I wouldn’t even think about him again after tonight except for when I needed to make Candido jealous.
But maybe I could just use Cillian for that if he had as much interest in me as I thought he might.
I didn’t see much of a reason to keep pretending like I had any interest in him either. He must have noticed that I wasn’t paying attention before his smile grew tense.
“Is the alcohol kicking in a bit hard?” He asked. “I got the sense that you didn’t really party much… I never saw you around.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
I did feel a little off. Not quite dizzy, but not quite steady either. Mostly just disinterested. Maybe I just didn’t like parties and I really hadn’t missed much of anything in all these years. Candido wasn’t here. He turned and lead me away from the party towards a quieter section of the party.
“Why don’t you take a seat until you get your bearings? I’ll look after you.”
He sat beside me, leaning me against him. He smelled… nice. Different than Candido, but nice enough.
“We should take a picture,” I said. “Commemorate my first party.”
“Sounds great!” I pulled out my phone and leaned close. The heat of his body made my heart race. I felt his breath ghosting across my neck as he moved closer.
I took the photo and turned to him. His gaze darted down to my lips. Wouldn’t that be something to rub in Candido’s face? His hand slipped over my leg. Heat pooled in my gut. I could imagine this was Candido. I felt myself reacting, and I could just see the look on his face when I told him.
“I don’t usually…” He whispered, not quite grazing our lips together.
“I want you to,” I said.
He grunted, and before he could kiss me, shots rang out. We jumped and turned towards the sound. Someone screamed. More gunshots went off. I smelled gunpowder. He shoved me off the couch and onto the ground as the gunshots grew louder.
“Nobody fucking move!” A male voice cried. “Party’s over, wolves.”
Vampires. How had they found this party? Had they really spread out that far?
Someone surged to their feet, and another vampire shot him out of the air. The whole party went quiet as the music was cut off. The vampires pushed through the crowd, kicking people apart and into little groups.
They hauled Claire up from the ground.
“Isn’t she…” The man laughed, grabbing her face. “How fucking lucky.”
They hauled someone else up, separating us, binding us. What they wanted with us, I didn’t know, but I couldn’t’ try to run with them already having grabbed Claire.
Someone grabbed me, a hand in my hair, and dragging me.
“Let me go!”
“Feisty,” he laughed. “Dumb too.”
“Don’t call me dumb!”
“Get her up,” someone else said. Someone grabbed me by my face and jerked me around to face them. He laughed.
“Two for one boys! We’re lucky tonight.”
They laughed and I was hauled to my feet and jerked around. I tried to struggle, but another set of cuffs, different than the ones before but no weaker than the others, closed around my wrists and I was forced forward.
People murmured around me, fearful as armored vampires bound and separated everyone else, inspecting them, sniffing them. They separating us and dragging us toward the vans. I looked back and saw a few of the vampires crowded around some of them. The blonde senior was slumped against the couch being drained of the last of his blood as he bled out from the hole in his chest. His eyes drifted and caught mine before going vacant as he breathed his last breath.
He'd pushed me out of the way of those bullets, and I didn’t even know his name.
The vampire shoved me down beside Claire and a few other women.
“Hedy,” Claire said softly. “They’re coming.”
“What?” I asked.
“Francium and Candido,” she said. “They’re coming.”
“You told them where we were?”
“We’ve been captured,” Claire hissed. “What the hell else am I supposed to do?”
I scowled at her. “How long?”
“I don’t know,” Claire said. “Hopefully soon.”
It wasn’t soon enough. Honestly, if he cared, he would have noticed that I was gone sooner. He would have just answered my messages and we wouldn’t be here. Claire wouldn’t have left Lunae’s Circle if I hadn’t agreed to come with her.’
“Get up.” One of them said, pulling us from the ground.
“Get in,” one of the vampires grunted, shoving us up the ramp and into the van. “Sit down.”
I dropped to the floor across from Claire. Then they closed the doors and the van cranked up, heading to who knew where.
